Improvement in felted fabrics



I W. E. BLOODGOOD.

Improvement in Felted Fabrics.

Patented July 9,1872.

WILLIAM E. BLOODGOOD, or RAHWAY, New JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN FELTED FABRICS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 128,844, dated July 9, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM E. BLoon- GOOD, of Bahway, in the county of Union and State of New Jersey, have invented a new 7 and Improved Felted Fabric; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanyin g drawing forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to a new and useful improvement in felted goods; and it consists in a new article of manufacture having one or both surfaces ornamented with variegated colors of bright and permanent character, adapted to greatly improve the style of skirts and other articles made from such goods. The said ornamental surfaces are produced by the incorporation of colored silk noils-the waste of raw silk-with the bats of wool, as hereinafter more fully described.

Figure 1 represents a. bunch of .the silk noils which I use for incorporating the aforesaid bright and permanent colors upon the surfaces of the felted cloths; and Fig. 2 is a representation of the surface of the ornamented felted cloth.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

The waste fiber A resulting from the preparation of raw silk for spinning, &c., has a pcculiar quality of partially gathering and knottin g together in small compact knots B, which are interspersed throughout the fiber with con siderable regularity. These compact knots being capable of taking and retaining bright and strong colors, and not being liable to be separated by the carding process by which the wool is formed into bats for felting, I propose to take such waste silk and color it in any of the known ways and with any variety of colors, according to the style or character of color I wish to impart to the completed goods, taking batches of the several different colors of the said waste and mixing them together and with the wool used for forming the bat previously to the carding, and card it in with the bat, either incorporating it with the whole,

mass or on the surfaces. In the latter case I only mix it with the portion of the wool used during the formation of the bat, which constitutes the outer layer of the lap; or the bats comprising both the surfaces may have the said colored silk waste incorporated with them in case it is desirable to have both sides of the cloth provided with the said colors. The loose fiber A of they waste being also colored, but being less marked and destructive than the knots, will, by mixing with the body of the cloth, impart to it a color somewhat of the character of the knots, but not to such a degree as to materially interfere with the marked or distinctive spots of color provided by the said knots.

This silk waste gives to the cloth with which it is so incorporated brighter colors than can be given to it by the fibers of wool treated in the same way, and is cheaper than the wool, which is marketable for working into the cloth itself, while the silk waste or noils, not having been heretofore utilized to any considerable extent, can be procured cheaper than the wool.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- A fabric formed of silk noils or knotted silk waste, mixed with the surface or incorporated with the body of a felting material, as and for the-purpose described.

WM. E. BLOODGOOD.

Witnesses GEO. W. MABEE,

T. B. MOSHER. 

